Scalefour Forum

davebradwell wrote:If you put the fag paper behind the offending jaw then the job is permanent - you gave the impression that the error was greater. The general deburring is worth doing and may well sort things out.

DaveB

Its the equivalent of two sheets (one either side) and it helps to stop pieces pivoting in the vice. New paper reqd. each time so shimming might not be so simple. I will have a go at de-burring, and fingers crossed that helps.

Hi
I have been looking at the GW advertisement in MRJ. I see he does a wheel puller. Is this something that I need/would be useful?
Best wishes

If you're going to be using Gibson wheels (I can't speak for others) then unless you're confident that you'll never have to remove them once they've been put on, the wheel puller may well indeed be useful. Once upon a time it had the reputation of not working well with Gibson wheels as it allegedly pulled the tyres off, but that has not happened with me and it makes a much better job of pulling the wheel off cleanly than I could ever manage otherwise.

DT

bordercollie wrote:Hi
I have been looking at the GW advertisement in MRJ. I see he does a wheel puller. Is this something that I need/would be useful?
Best wishes

Useful, but only if you intend pulling wheels off!

Better plan is to put the wheels on once, and put them on right. This should be the last stage of construction - putting wheels on and pulling them off again means the hole is getting abused. This results in a wheel that may fail - twist on the axle or not be square (to the axle).

If you really need to build a chassis by putting wheels on and off, collect some scrap wheels, and use them.

jasp wrote:Andrew
That looks really interesting.
Can you please advise where you got it?
Thanks
Jim P

It came from Hobbycraft https://www.hobbycraft.co.uk/the-daylight-company-duo-table-lamp/637870-1000.

Tim V wrote:Andrew

That soldering iron is awfully close to that curtain....

Knuckles suitably rapped! Although the iron had been off for hours, I should not have left it plugged in and then moved it near the curtain (to take the photo).

andrewnummelin wrote:
It came from Hobbycraft https://www.hobbycraft.co.uk/the-daylight-company-duo-table-lamp/637870-1000.

It's £5 cheaper from Amazon:

https://www.amazon.co.uk/The-Daylight-Company-DN1520-Duolamp_Table_White/dp/B01KTQ8F9W

It is £5 cheaper from Amazon because they have engineered a position where they pay almost no tax. I will support businesses that contribute to our economy

Re wheel puller - absolutely right to avoid removing wheels but if you do you'll probably find you can just pull them off by hand with a twisting action. Less risk of damage, too. Same when adjusting gauge of wagon/coach wheels. Gears can be a different matter but a piece of plate with a slot and a punch work wonders. You might be creative in describing the punch - it's sometimes described as a nail with end filed flat if only moderate force is required.

DaveB

Far be it for me to disagree, but as someone who has had to remove wheels on almost every chassis I've built (actually, delete the "almost") I've found it quite hard trying to twist a wheel off when it's tightly on the axle in the chassis, and this can all too often lead to distortion. I've found that the GW wheel puller does the job much more efficiently and with less damage.

DT

Andrew
Many thanks for the info.
You have solved the problem for a Christmas present for (from?) one of our Daughters.
The other one.....? A box of liquorice allsorts would be fine, but ......?
Jim P

You must have a magic touch, David, as I've never achieved such a fit, except perhaps with a later Sharman moulded in glass filled nylon and even then I've been able to tweak the quartering by twisting. Sorry but I just don't fancy a straight pull on the outside of a thin soft plastic wheel - I'll resort to my bit of plate and punch if ever they won't twist off.

DaveB

I had cause to try a wheel puller on an old Sharman wheel recently. It fitted the axle very well (too well) and as I turned the screw the wheel centre assumed a very pronounced dish shape and was clearly going to break! Probably with an Alan Gibson wheel the tyre might have sprung off.

Dave’s plate and punch will have to be the way to go...

Philip

Well, that's very odd because in recent months I've used the Wheel Puller on a number of Gibson wheels and the plastic has not bent nor has the tyre come off though I understand that that did sometimes happen with older style Gibson wheels.

DaveB, I'm not sure what you mean by "such a fit". I've found that with (recent?) Gibson drivers the fit is very tight on the exle, even when the latter is appropriately chamfered. I think that that is of course a good thing except when you try to get the wheel off again. I should perhaps add that most of my locos have fairly small drivers and it can be a devil to get a grip on these once they have been fitted to the chassis (minimal room behind them).

DT

This issue of pulling tyres off has been around for a long time. Unless you have a solid wheel, there will always be a danger of the tyre being distorted or pulled off the hub.

To avoid this, I have made a couple of discs to fit behind the whole wheel so that the puller works on the disc, not the tyre, to pull the whole wheel. They don't need to be the exact diameter, just no smaller than the wheel diameter.

The discs I made from old coins, a George V penny and French 20 centime. The slot is 1/8". The coins were made a bit thinner on a belt sander but do remember that friction causes them to get hot. I forgot this and branded my thumb with 'Republique Francais'!

I have never achieved such a fit as to require anything other than hands to remove a wheel safely - I dream of this occurring but increasing the interference would only increase the chance of the ABS boss splitting - Colin probably has it about as tight as it will go. Certainly on small diameter wheels there is less chance of breaking the spokes. There's a paradox here - if the wheel is so tight as to require a mechanical aid then the puller in question will probably bend or wreck the wheel. If they're not so tight, then the puller will do a fine job. Exactoscale made a puller for their wheels and this is a much better design as it pulls on the centre. I would use this if ever the wheel was winning and I see that David B's discs do a similar job.

The aim of the original post was merely to question the wisdom of buying a tool you shouldn't need to use and which I felt was not appropriate, anyway. Better to invest in a quality vernier like a Mitutoyo as someone else has already suggested. Accuracy of quality measuring tools is given deep down in the specification and should be checked before buying. Be wary of things labelled "precision".

DaveB

Just to re-suggest (agreeing with DT) sets of broaches are a lot more useful and long lasting than a set of drills of every half millimetre increment. The latter just get blunt. I had batches of 0.5 mm and 0.8mm drills. Nice simple vernier is invaluable.

Supply of NS or brass or wire of every 0.1 increment 0.2 to 1mm essential for representing various diameter pipes. Piano/guitar wire also can be very useful.

Julian Roberts wrote:Just to re-suggest (agreeing with DT) sets of broaches are a lot more useful and long lasting than a set of drills of every half millimetre increment. The latter just get blunt. I had batches of 0.5 mm and 0.8mm drills. Nice simple vernier is invaluable.

Supply of NS or brass or wire of every 0.1 increment 0.2 to 1mm essential for representing various diameter pipes. Piano/guitar wire also can be very useful.

Julian,

the Microbox drill sets are, in my experience, likely to blunt quite quickly.

I now use Busch or Proxxon drills with a 2.35mm shank (3/32" in old money) which last much longer. Using a pillar drill whenever possible or a hand held slow running Dremel type drill gives better control and reduces breakages.

Jol

Jol I find the opposite true the faster the drill the less likely the breakage of the drill bits from the Micro box's. Mind you I now buy them cheaply from the local "electronics" shop (Jaycar here in Australia) it is by far the cheapest source compared to the model shops. The current 2 micro boxes I think I have lost 1 drill to breakage and one has just vanished!

[

DougN wrote:Jol I find the opposite true the faster the drill the less likely the breakage of the drill bits from the Micro box's. Mind you I now buy them cheaply from the local "electronics" shop (Jaycar here in Australia) it is by far the cheapest source compared to the model shops. The current 2 micro boxes I think I have lost 1 drill to breakage and one has just vanished!

Hi
Do you find the the quality of the Jaycar Microboxes are as good as any you have used previously?

A decent bench vice will have hardened and ground steel jaws so files, scrapers and abrasive paper will make no impression on them. The one sown on page 23 of Scalefour News 213. The black one to the right of the picture has such jaws and holds thin parts very well.The only way to smooth up hardened jaws is to use what is called a surface grinder which has a table with a magnetic vice to held the part being ground. Many small vices have serrated jaws which we do not need and one solution is to make some protectors from two pieces of aluminium sheet clamped between the jaws and bent over the top. This solution has the flexibility to cope with jaws that may not be parallel.

Terry Bendall

The Jaycar microboxs drills don't seem to be as "sharp" as some of the others I have used. But I do use the same drills a lot. Then again as they are only 12AUD buying another drill set is not a massive issue.

One thing I do use a heap is the small tapered broaches. The last set cost about 38AUD which was 0 to about 2mm I will have to buy another set as these are brilliant at opening holes in brass and nickel silver up to interference fit or clearance is I find a lot easier than using drills. In fact I am working on a Finney V2 kit which means they are really compulsory!